Loved this piece on DRM and interoperability by publishers Enhanced Editions
Loved the nice and clear intro:
Let’s get this straight. We’re totally anti-DRM. That’s our position. It’s not the position of all of our partners, but many of them. Anyway, for now, that’s our position. In fact for ever, that’s our position.
Which is cool coming from an app store content publisher, and this nice and clear explanation of why interoperability is important:
In publishing however, DRM is most closely tied up for consumers - as in music - in interoperability. That’s the ability to buy a file that works on any device. So you can buy a book, and read it on your phone, iPhone, laptop, Sony Reader, Kindle, and so on. If a file is DRM’d, it tends to only be playable on one kind of device, which means it’s not-interoperable, and that therefore you don’t really “own” it, just rent it. And before you ask, there is no such thing as interoperable DRM in music or books. For the record, we’re all for inter-operability.
As I’ve said before, imagine if your Victrola 78s could only be played on a Victrola-DRM-regulated phonograph. What am I supposed to do with my content once the DRM manager has gone out of business?